Breaking news: Beaches reopened

Published 3:14 pm, Friday, April 22, 2016

HURON COUNTY — Health officials reopened the beaches at Lighthouse County Park and Bird Creek County Park Thursday afternoon after test results found safe levels of E. coli in the waters there.

The test results, which are from resampling conducted Wednesday at the two beaches, found 60.9953 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliter (ml.) of water at the Lighthouse County Park beach in Port Hope, and 3.7244 E. coli colonies per 100 ml. of water at Bird Creek County Park beach in Port Austin.

Health officials closed the two beaches Wednesday after samples collected Tuesday found a geometric mean of 2,265.5692 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliter (ml.) of water at the Lighthouse County Park beach, and 469.8514 E. coli colonies per 100 ml. of water at Bird Creek County Park.

A beach is closed because of unsafe E. coli levels in deep waters when the daily geometric mean of three samples collected in 3 to 6 feet of water exceed 300 E. coli colonies per 100 ml. of water. About 30 ml. equal 1 fluid ounce.

Following the Huron County Health Department’s announcement Thursday afternoon that the two beaches closed Wednesday now are open, all of the area’s beaches are open for swimming for the upcoming holiday weekend.

This is the fourth week of this summer’s weekly beach testing program. Prior to Wednesday’s beach closures, only one beach had been closed because of high E. coli levels this summer. That closure took place June 8 at the Port Crescent State Park day use beach. Health officials reopened that beach June 9.

Funding for the weekly summer beach testing, is conducted in deeper waters, at least 3 feet in depth, is made available through a grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE).

The Huron Daily Tribune will publish beach closures and weekly beach testing results on www.michigansthumb.com as they are released.